1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to holders, and in particular to a holder mountable on a bed rail and the like for a telephone or a patient communicator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In hospitals, nursing homes, convelescent facilities and the like, bedridden patients are often provided with communication devices for their convenience, entertainment and even safety. For example, telephones may be found at the bedsides in many such facilities. Also, patient communicators having a nurse call button whereby the patient can electronically summon assistance from persons at a remote locations are well known. Such patient communicators may also serve other communications functions, for example, as the controls for a television positioned in the patient's room. Further, a television or radio speaker may be provided in the patient communicator for relatively private listening without disturbing others.
A common problem in the use of such communication devices relates to their placement in positions conveniently accessible by a bedridden patient, particularly one with a limited range of movement. For example, a typical practice is to place the telephone on a table or night stand in proximity to the bed whereby a bedridden person has to turn on his or her side and/or reach backward in order to pick up the telephone. However, the patient was often hampered by a raised side rail positioned between him or her and the telephone. Hospital type beds typically have such side rails to prevent patients from inadvertently rolling out of them. To place the telephone closer to the patient, holders have been devised which mount on some part of the bed. For example, it is known to provide a holder having a receptacle for receiving the telephone with a clamp for attachment to the head board of the bed. However, a telephone mounted in such a device is out of the normal range of sight of a patient who must either grope for it or turn at an awkward angle to see it.
Another type of telephone holder or bracket is shown in the Jackson U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,657 and comprises a single unitary length of wire formed in a predetermined configuration for mounting on a pair of bed rails. A significant disadvantage thereof is that it is primarily adapted for use with a Trim-line telephone and with a particular type of hospital bed having spaced upper and lower rails.
Patient communicators, on the other hand, are often clipped onto the bedding whereat they may become displaced, difficult to reach, or in the way of the patient and/or a person making the bed. Because the patient communicators serve as an emergency device whereby patients can quickly summon assistance, it is very important that they be readily accessible even by a patient with a limited range of movement. Therefore, alternative mounting means for patient communicators have been devised, as exemplified by the Langlais U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,363. A C-clamp for attachment to a bed frame is shown therein with a bendable arm holding a cradle for adjustably supporting the patient communicator. However, the clamp of this structure is accessible from beneath the bed frame is thus not readily removable in case of interference with raising and/or lowering the side rail, moving the patient in or out of the bed, etc. Furthermore, the relatively long bendable arm may be seen as a disadvantage necessitating a relatively high cost.
To overcome these problems, the side rails of a hospital bed have been used for mounting a patient communicator because it is thus located in a conveniently accessible predetermined position whereat interference with bedding and the patient is avoided. For example, bed rails have been devised with built-in patient communicators facing inwardly between upper and lower bed rails. However, equipping existing hospital beds with such patient communicators generally requires replacing the existing bed rails and patient communicators at considerable expense.
Prior art holders for mounting telephones and patient communicators on or adjacent hospital-type beds have thus tended to be inconvenient, costly, or incompatible with a variety of different types of telephones, patient communicators and bed rails. In particular, there has heretofore not been available a holder system with interchangable bodies for various types of telephones and patient communicators and clips for different types of bed rails.